1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for bagging bales, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for automatically sequentially bagging bales of agricultural products in a continuous process.
Traditionally, bales of agricultural products such as grass, hay, corn stalks and the like convert into desired silage during storage in a sealed silage system such as a silo. Another method of producing silage which also improves the quality of forage comprises bagging such bales in plastic bags. This eliminates the need for a costly silo, expensive equipment or dedicating otherwise limited financial resources to maintain a permanent storage structure. The apparatus of the present invention for loading plastic bags with bales uses conventional agricultural equipment such as a three-point hitch with a common farm tractor and any fork-type bale carrier as well as plastic tubing having sufficient interior diameter to accommodate large bales of agricultural products.
Typically, devices available for bagging bales comprise a front-end loader modified to pick up and transport individual bales to the desired storage area and to hold the bale aloft while other people slip a plastic bag over the bale. The bagged bale is then tightly tied and stored, and the empty front-end loader returns to the field to repeat the process until all bales are bagged and stored. Such a process is inefficient because it requires excessive hand labor and plastic to completely seal and store the bale. This inefficiency greatly increases the operating expenses because more plastic is used than is actually needed and extra man-power is wasted while waiting for the tractor driver to retrieve and position another bale.
Bales of agricultural products are difficult to manage because of their density and size. Automatic bale loading and transporting devices comprising chain conveyors having lugs tend to break the bale bindings which causes the bales to fall apart. In addition, conveyors generally do not efficiently or reliably engage bales, thus, there is increased spacing between the bales on the conveyor, and this reduces the storage capacity of plastic tubing when bagging multiple bales.
Some apparatus for handling bales of agricultural products tilt an entire bale support structure to transfer the bales to their storage area. Such equipment requires many working parts which are subject to malfunction. A tiltable support structure for large cylindrical bales of agricultural products is not only cumbersome, but also requires large work areas and strong pivoting devices to accommodate the tilting.
Other continuous packaging systems are known which convey articles into a tubular packaging material held open by some device. A reel of the tubular packaging material is usually threaded around guiding or idler rolls onto or in proximity with the opening device, and a conveying means such as a shuttle or a funnel extends into the tubular material through the opening structure to insert the article into the tubing. In such systems, the conveying means such as a shuttle or a funnel must be mounted in close registration with the structure holding the tubular packaging material ready for filling. Any realigning would, therefore, be not only expensive, but also time consuming.